Practicing Strategic Design Series— Forms Edition Release 1
I am discussing and analyzing forms in this series because it is a classic, commonly used information inquiry tool that can demonstrate what goes into an experience on a journey-level and an interactional one. I am writing this series in three releases:
Release 1: Learn to design strategically. Zooming out, I discuss the big picture, where the form is a touchpoint in the journey—discovering and defining user and business goals to strategize with a plan.
Release 2: Learn to design proficiently. Zooming in, I discuss forms' from a UI, UX, and interaction design perspective— prototyping and testing forms' designs skilfully.
Release 3: Learn to design tactfully. Aligning strategy and design, I combine what you learned in Release 1 and Release 2 to see how all pieces work together.
"Definitions are the foundation of reason. You can't reason without them."
— Robert M. Pirsig
Allow me to share my definition of forms,
"forms are a tool to acquire needed input from the user to show an output for the objective of achieving a shared outcome between the asker (business) and filler (end-user)."
Release 1: Learn to design strategically.
In my work, I see many designers and researchers focusing on enhancing forms from an interactional level. An interactional level would focus on fields to fill and buttons to click. Here, I invite you to adjust your lenses and zoom out from fields and buttons -don't worry, Release 2 will discuss them- to see the bigger picture: the journey from start to finish.
Motive/trigger: users begin thinking about motive by asking themselves what value they are getting or what goal they are fulfilling by filling out your form. Now, your trigger needs to be successful in calling out the motive.
Funneling: forms are long, and they can come in phases. Therefore, users might drop at any step throughout the journey for various reasons that need to be identified and addressed.
Yes And Rule: Borrowing this rule from improv classes, upon finishing a form, you want to communicate output, and you can direct users to a new related journey. The journey must go on.
Seeing forms from a journey perspective helps you identify objectives and metrics to keep in mind. Below find my thought process when I asses or design forms:
Focus needs to be singular: I think about a single purpose this journey needs to achieve. Everything else can be either a parameter or an indicator for this focus/objective.
Use my CEE Form Assessment: I use my assessment method for the following indicators: conversion, effort, and errors to identify their quant parameters.
Contextualizing the quant via the qual: I analyze what those indicators mean to this journey and personas via qual research findings.
Creating meaningful parameters: via qual research, I determine which parameters need increasing and decreasing and what that means.
Aligning to decide: I set up a draft mind map aligning everything to help me assess and/or make decisions about features, user stories, or job stories.
First, focus needs to be singular.
That doesn't mean excluding other factors but instead assigning a percentage of importance. Sometimes it is a difficult conversation with stakeholders and clients as they typically want to focus on everything.
Areej: What is our focus here? Is it the completion rate or the task time rate?
Stakeholder/Client: Well, both
Areej: Pick one focus
Stakeholder/Client: How?
Areej: Context
Let me clarify with the following scenario:
Scenario 1: I am evaluating a sign-up form for an e-commerce website. The sign-up form is mandatory within the purchase process; no guest purchase option.
In this scenario, I would focus on time on task because filling out the sign-up form is a prerequisite for the purchase journey, and completing it is a default. Therefore, the form needs to be less painful within the purchase journey, as the faster the users fill out the form, the quicker they make the purchase.
Scenario 2: I am evaluating a personal loan form/application for a banking app. The user applies in 4 steps. After step 1, the user waits for an initial acceptance to presume the application, which takes 2-3 hours, and after step 3, they wait for the final approval to continue to the last step, which takes 2-3 days, then they get the loan.
In this scenario, I would focus on the completion rate because the bank makes money with applications accepted; that's the bottom line. Of course, for applications to be accepted, they need to be submitted. Now, the time of the task is crucial as it helps the submission; therefore, the completion rate and other indicators also affect the completion rate.
Second, use my form CEE assessment.
Assuming I picked completion rate as my main focus. Now, I need to identify which indicators will support me in achieving a high completion rate. I found this via an assessment I call Form Conversion, Effort, and Error indicators (CEE Form Assessment).
Under each indicator, I have brainstormed a set of quant parameters as an example.
Conversion
Form views
Form submission
Difference between form views and submissions
Most clicked link after application submission
Effort
Time spent respectfully filling out the form
Form usability (e.g., SUS)
Number of input fields and files
Form abandonment
Num of ignored fields
Errors
Number of errors displayed in section/phase
Number of times a specific field was corrected
How long it takes users to recover from an error
Abandonment rate (after an error.)
Third, contextualizing the quant via the qual.
When it comes to the qualitative, you need to keep an eye on user behavior in navigating through the form from start to finish to examine the above quant and make sense of results. I brainstorm questions under each indicator corresponding to the quant parameters, and I might also end up with more questions later in evaluating and/or testing with users. See below for an example.
Conversion
Where do users give up and leave?
Are they abandoning form when they get to a hotspot field and/or step, e.g., a pricing or budget field?
What is the story behind the difference between views and submission numbers?
Are there any interactions that are confusing and/or time-consuming?
Where are users going after they fill out the form?
Effort
Are we asking users to fill in fields we already have?
What does the time users spend filling out fields and form steps tell us?
Which areas of your form aren't getting filled out and why?
Where are users stopping and why?
Are users abandoning the form when they get to a hotspot field and/or step, e.g., a step with many fields and/or attachments to fill and provide?
Errors
What are the most corrected fields, and why?
What are the most fields with errors?
After getting an error, how do users recover?
Are there any form fields where people edit their answers a lot before submitting them?
Fourth, creating meaningful parameters.
While there are parameters where we know we want a higher completion rate, there are other ones that I see many professionals use arbitrarily, e.g., the number of clicks and time spent doing task X.
Again, context is essential; spending time sometimes means enjoyment, while at other times, it means difficulty or inability to hold the user's attention. Qualitative research in step 3 helps you understand the quant parameters meaningfully. Numbers can tell you no story without qualitative bits, but they would point in all directions. I have seen many organizations launch projects and CRs that negatively affect each other without even noticing.
In addition, consider benchmarking for specific parameters like time spent and the performance of a field compared to a particular industry. Some tools can provide such data, meaningfully making you understand the numbers you view on the dashboard.
Fifth, aligning to decide.
I align the objective, KPIs, and quant metrics, with qual findings that will contextualize metrics and which personas are affected. As a result, whether in the organization you have user stories, job stories, or features, you can make decisions wisely and accordingly.
In the following Release, Release 2, titled Learn to Design Proficiently, I will zoom in to discuss how to design, prototype, and test forms' from a UI, UX, and interaction design perspective. Share with me what you think!
